The World Bank's twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects examines growth trends for the global economy and how they affect developing countries. The Global Economic Prospects is a World Bank Group corporate flagship. The reports include three-year forecasts for the global economy as well as relevant scenarios.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean slowed markedly to 0.8 percent in 2014 but with diverging developments across the region. South America slowed sharply as domestic factors, exacerbated by China’s cooling economy and declining global commodity prices, took their toll on some of the largest economies in the region. In contrast, growth in North and Central America was robust, lifted by strengthening activity in the United States. Strengthening exports on the back of the continued recovery among high-income countries and robust capital flows should lift regional GDP growth to an average of around 2.6 percent in 2015–17. A sharper-than-expected slowdown in China and a steeper decline in commodity prices represent major downward risks to the outlook.

Source: World BankWorld Bank forecasts are frequently updated based on new information and changing (global) circumstances. Consequently, projections presented here may differ from those contained in other Bank documents, even if basic assessments of countries’ prospects do not significantly differ at any given moment in time.
Cuba, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, are not forecast owing to data limitations.
a. GDP growth rates over intervals are compound average; current account balance shares are simple averages over the period.
b. Preliminary for long-term average. Data was recently rebased; missing data up to 2003 was spliced with the earlier data.
c. The recently high-income countries are based on World Bank's country reclassification from 2004 to 2014.